Comparison of 'The Red Room' By H.G. Wells and 'Farthing House' by Susan Hill. In this essay I will be comparing the two short stories 'The Red Room' by H.G. Wells and 'Farthing House' by Susan Hill, both taken from the book 'Short Stories'. I will be looking at how the authors create tension throughout the story and the success of each story. Both stories have a set of characters to create the needed atmosphere which is crucial in all ghost stories. The characters are usually old as they can be related to the myths, tales etc., which are regularly used as story lines . The idea of ghosts, spirits etc. is thought of in a scenario where something is old, either the setting E.g. A haunted house, or characters. Because the characters are old they can have some relevance or understanding of the ghosts. The set of characters 'The Red Room' try to warn off the man who wanted to investigate the Red Room. They seem to have some connection with the Red Room or the presence within. ...read more.

Middle

"...and the door creaked on it's hinges as a second old man entered..." The feeling of isolation is in 'Farthing House' is also present in 'The Red Room'. The man who comes to investigate is advised not to go near the room and he feels like they are against him, so he only has himself to rely on. "I half suspected the old people were trying enhance the spiritual terrors of their house..." This helps build the tension by making the main character a solo investigator, and most people, if in the same position as the main character of the story would not want to be in that scenario, most people would go with someone else or in a group. A main theme of FH is family. The character is going to see her Aunt. In the beginning of the story she is on her way, but puts off the actual visit, wasting time by looking around the village and stopping at shops. ...read more.

Conclusion

"The worst of all things that haunt poor mortal man,' said I; 'and that is, in all its nakedness- Fear!" I think this a good ending to the story as I , personally do not believe in ghosts, and the point of the story is part of the argument against the existence of ghosts. It is also a good point because it shows just how much one can be in fear- at the beginning of the story the man says: "... 'It will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.' " And in the end he is proved wrong. In 'F.H' the answer to the cause of existence of a ghost is answered; "A young women stole a baby... Her address was given as Farthing house Close, Little Dornford." This shows the history of the ghost. Each story has a certain amount of success. The RR, for me is more succesful than FH as it ended in a way you wouldn't expect. In FH I was expecting an encounter with the ghost but it wasn't what I expected and didn't do much to scare me. ...read more.

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Personification is used here to create suspense. Personification is also used when the, 'shadows seemed to take another step towards me.' The writer has used personification here to build suspense because the man was getting even more terrified as the shadows were getting close to him. The writer has used one more personification to picture the fear of the man in the readers mind.

On several occasions he reassures himself by a perpetual scrutiny of the room. He states; "I resolved to make a systematic examination of the place at once, and dispel the fanciful suggestion of its obscurity before they can obtain a hold upon me."

`Hating Kwan, hating myself.' As the story comes to an end, during the trip to China, the reader realises that Kwan's ghost stories have been a parallel to Olivia and her life. Olivia is the ghost of Miss Banner, her husband Simon is the ghost of Yibban and Kwan is Nunumu.

He is leaving the decision to him. The author has used various terms to portray the old pensioners in the story by calling them "grotesque custodians", "decaying", "withered", "pale" and "wrinkled". These words are associated with inhuman beings and make the old people appear old. He has also used many metaphors and similes such as "it was like a ragged storm cloud sweeping out the stars".

Here, suspense is raised again. He felt the need to 'reassure himself' so he walked over to the alcove to find that there was 'nothing tangible there'. Here he refers back to the first line about tangible ghosts. More tension is built as the man begins to talk to himself.

that he wants to visit "the red room" just to test for himself if the rumours of it being haunted are true. When he does he seems to be asking a lot of questions, I feel that the readers are getting frustrated why he is doing this.

Susan Hill wrote Farthing House in 1992. It is about a woman who is writing to her daughter about an experience in her past and is not scary, more sad and touching. The story is about a ghost which has to find something before it can leave earth.